The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes. – Chuck Swindoll
USACE, let me begin by saying that I am guilty as charged. Each day, we publish an infographic that gives us a pictorial fact sheeting highlighting the progress we have made across the USACE enterprise during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is quite impressive. In the upper left-hand corner of the graphic, there is a calendar with the response day number. Today, marks day 40. So, what is the infraction I am charged with today? I am guilty of not always having the best attitude. To be 100% honest, I am ready to get back to life as normal.
So, let’s talk about attitude. Simply defined, attitude is “the complex mental state involving beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions to act in certain ways.” If you accept this definition, it is very easy to accept Chuck Swindoll’s above quote. Another quote I like is from the concentration camp survivor, Victor Frankl. He said that “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: To choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way” (Man’s Search for Meaning).
If we are in fact in charge of our attitudes, this leaves us with an important question, “How do we obtain a positive attitude?” Before I answer that question, I want to look at two men in the Bible and what they did with their attitudes. On the one side, we have Moses. And on the other side, we have Joseph.
Let’s look at Moses first. Moses was born Hebrew and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter in comfort. He chose through what he believed to be his moral obligation to defend a mistreated Hebrew, which forced him to flee to Midian. He became a shepherd under his father-in-law Jethro. At the burning bush, God called Him to deliver the Israelites from the tyranny of the Egyptians (we talked about that this past week). He saw the miraculous power of God – 10 plagues, Red Sea, Manna & Quall, Cloud by Day and Pillar of Fire by Night. The list of miracles goes on and on, which give us the reason to believe that Moses had every reason to have tremendous faith in God, and a positive attitude. Unfortunately, he did not have the appropriate attitude when it counted the most – read Number 20:7-12. As a result of his “bad attitude” episode, God barred him from ever entering the Promise Land.
Let’s now look at Joseph second. He was the son of Jacob, by Rachel. He was highly favored by his father. As a result, he was hated by his brothers. They were jealous, and they sold him into slavery. He excelled in Potiphar’s house, and he promoted him to a position of authority.
Because Joseph rejected Potiphar’s wife’s propositions, and she falsely accused him. As a result, Potiphar sentenced him to prison. While Joseph was in prison, he obeyed God and interpreted Pharaoh’s dream. As a result, Pharaoh elevated him to second in charge of the then most powerful nation in the world at that time. As a result, God used the position to save Israel from certain famine.
So, what was the difference between Moses and Joseph? Moses had EVERY REASON to believe God was on his side! And Joseph had EVERY REASON to believe God was against him. The difference is the answer the above question, “How do we obtain a positive attitude?” We obtain a good attitude by choosing to have a positive, faith filled attitude each day regardless of our circumstances.
I end with this illustration: The noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist thought it would be interesting to interview some of the workers, so he chose three and asked them this question, “What are you doing?” The first replied, “I’m cutting stone for 10 shillings a day.” The next answered, “I’m putting in 10 hours a day on this job.” But the third said, “I’m helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London’s greatest cathedrals.”
USACE, as difficult as things are now, I challenge you to choose a positive attitude…This too shall pass!!
Blessings,
Chaplain Brad Baumann